The country's 44 fund houses together had an average AUM (Asset Under Management) of Rs 8,16,400 crore at the end of fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, according to latest data available with Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

The total AUM rose by a staggering Rs 1.51 lakh crore or an increase of 23 percent during 2012-13 from Rs 6,64,792 crore in the preceding fiscal.

Mutual Funds assets have been growing since January-March quarter of 2012. The industry's total assets base was at Rs 7,86,543 crore in the October-December quarter of fiscal 2012-13.

Mutual funds collect money from investors and later invest the same into various market segments including stocks, IPOs (primary market) and bonds.

During the fiscal, the market benchmark Sensex soared by about eight percent on positive measures taken by the government.

Most of the fund houses, including the top-ranked HDFC, Reliance, ICICI Prudential and UTI saw their AUMs rise during the last quarter.

However, fund houses like Sahara, BNP Paribas, Edelweiss, ING and Canara Robecco witnessed a decline in their AUMs from the levels seen in the previous fiscal.

Of the 44 fund houses, 39 entities saw their AUMs rise during the period.

Market experts largely attributed the rise in AUM to a number of factors, including steps taken by the government and the market regulator to revive equity culture in the country and help channelise household income into stocks and mutual funds.

In the past fiscal, Reliance Mutual Fund' assets have grown by Rs 16,468 crore amounting to 21 percent to Rs 94,580 crore, while that of HDFC MF has increased by Rs 11,842 crore translating to a 13 percent growth at Rs 1,01,720 crore.